Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Every year tons ofgamingsites announce who they think "won" E3, basically who they think had the best show that year. The gaming press gives their opinion about the best of E3 2010 but its easy to give your opinion when there isn't anything on the line. Stock market investors actually vote with their pocket books and invest in the company they thought had the best E3. So who do investors think won E3 2010?

Microsoft Stock Price During E3 Press Conference

Microsoft started their E3 press conference Monday June 14th at 1pm EDT. They showed Kinect, announced a slim Xbox 360, and showed footage of Gears of War 3. By the end of the show Microsoft's stock was little changed, down about $0.20.

Nintendo Stock Price During E3 Press Conference

Nintendo E3 press conference started the next day, Tuesday June 15th at 11:30am EDT. Nintendo showed off a string of Nintendo franchises, new Zelda gameplay, and the Nintendo 3DS. By the end of the day their stock price was up more than $2.00 or 6.4%. Investors most have been impressed with the 3DS.

Sony Stock Price During E3 Press Conference

Sony's E3 press conference was later in the day on Tuesday, 3:30pm EDT on June 15th. Sony showed the new Move controller, announced Portal 2 on PS3, and showed Gran Turismo 5. By the end of stock trading (only one hour later) Sony's stock was up about $0.50 or 1.7%.

The above comparisons are only for the actual day of the conference. What did investors think by the end of the show?

Nintendo, Sony, & Microsoft Stock Prices During E3 Week

The above chart compares the stock price of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo during the entire week of E3 plus the Monday afterwards (June 14th to June 21st).

Nintendo's stock was up almost 20% during this time period while Sony and Microsoft's stock were almost the exact same. Microsoft was up about 2% and Sony was unchanged.

Investors were definitely hopefully about Nintendo after E3. Something they saw at the show convinced them that Nintendo would be making more money in the future.

NOTE: The E3 conference has a much bigger influence on Nintendo stock because Nintendo only sells games. The show covers the vast majority of Nintendo's sales. On the other hand the E3 conference will not have as big of an influence on Sony or Microsoft's earnings because they have other business that are much larger than games. Windows makes a lot more money for Microsoft than Xbox does. Likewise for TV's and electronics for Sony.